Chapter 412 An Assortment Of New Materials
After we gathered the Snow Weed, we also began to find other Herbs and even blue and clear, blue-colored flowers growing around sporadically, they were rarer to find, but were just as interesting. Hell, there were even clear white mushrooms that camouflaged as piles of snow, so it was rather hard to find those.
[Snowflake Herb (E Grade)]
A special herb whose leaves are snowflake shaped. Much like other plants within its category, it is able to survive in incredibly freezing, below zero grades of temperature, but it might weaken or have its leaves melted away if it is exposed to strong temperatures above 20 grades. This plant not only stores water from snow but also is capable of assimilating snow, making most of its body ice crystals that grow constantly.
Its roots feed on the mana of the underground and various other nutrients. It has healing properties and can stop bleeding if their leaves are applied over open wounds. If prepared, it can become an ingredient for both low quality health and mana potions.
[Snow White Mushroom (D Grade)]
A mushroom that camouflages as a pile of snow, its map is fluffy and covered in snow most of the time to hide from predators that might find its succulent flesh a good meal for the cold temperatures, its roots usually grow around Weed or other plants, where its parasites their roots to draw nutrients and mana from them, it grows rich and big, and can often grow as big as one meter. It is comestible and can be made into a series of dishes, it can grow as long as spores are spread out over roots or wood. Due to its high quantities of stored Mana, it can restore Mana upon consumption, or be used for Mana Potions as ingredient.
[Snow Princess Flower (D Grade)]
A beautiful flower in the shape of a dancing princess made completely out of magic ice. This plant absorbs Mana from environments rich in ice attribute, and grows bigger over time. It is said that if this flower is gifted to a beautiful lady, there might be a chance they'll become a princess in the future. This flower is often favored by Ice Spirits and Ice Fairies, who love to eat the flower, which has a sweet flavor. This flower contains large quantities of Mana, so it can be used for Mana Potions the most.
"Oooh, so many new herbs! I am getting excited about making stuff with them!" I said while sighing happily, I loaded my Inventory with hundreds of Weeds, Herbs, Flowers, and Mushrooms.
We also decided to cook some mushrooms right now, as we ended finding around thirty of them, and they were BIG, one mushroom was watermelon sized, so we took two and that would be enough for everybody, as I began grilling it and the white mushroom quickly turned a beautiful brown color, emanating a slightly sweet scent that also seemed similar to nuts.
"Ooh, the smell is tempting!" Said Lucifer. "Can we eat already?"
"Wait a bit more! I also chopped some into the stew, let's eat these first." I said.
I quickly served everybody some nice stew, as we began enjoying the delicious meal together, the mushrooms were surprisingly creamy when boiled, slowly melting inside of the mouth. It left me shocked by how delicious they actually were.
"T-This is way too good!" I proclaimed happily of eating such delicious food.
"Indeed…" Emeraldine said in surprise. "I had never eaten mushrooms like these!"
"It tastes like nuts…" Said Partner, she didn't seemed as amused.
"Hmm, with the delicious broth made from lizard meat and bones, and the meat, the potatoes, carrots, and all… Ahh, this is really comforting." Sighed Lucifer, eating everything. He had grown to love my homemade cooking. "I love your cooking, Maria, it is the best."
"Hehehe, I am happy to hear that~" I giggled.
"I think they're ready now." Darfu pointed at the big, watermelon-sized mushrooms grilling over the grill. I quickly touched them, suddenly feeling as if they were incredibly soft, a piece crumbled away easily.
"Wow, they must be… alright, let's try them alone and then we can add salt or something else later." I said, quickly taking out both mushrooms, serving them into big plates, and then using a big knife to cut them into slices.
Suddenly, a white creamy substance began coming out of the mushroom's interior, as if it were melted cheese, everyone was enchanted by the sight. I decided that this would be hard to eat alone, so I made some sandwiches with mushrooms and ham.
Everyone quickly gave it a bite, the mushrooms were soft and creamy, as if their interior was a mushroom cream soup made way back at Earth. The bread went good with it, and the ham enhanced the flavor a lot.
"Uwah, this is tasty!" Partner suddenly said, she preferred them grilled over boiled.
"Wow… This mushroom, why we have never eaten them before?" Asked Baldur in shock.
"Mushrooms grow in big quantities inside caves and the dungeons we had back home but we never found anything ! Mushrooms that grow in the cold are really something else!" Laughed Balladur.
"It is incredible that this grew atop snow…" Darfu said.
"Hahh… I don't know if I I'll ever be able to eat any other mushroom in my life anymore." Emeraldine cried.
"It is indeed quite delicious…"
I never thought it would be so fun to pick up stuff on the go to eat.
After we had our lunch, we quickly decided to move over, after everybody went to the bathroom behind some trees, we quickly sat over Lucifer's back once more and flew off into the skies.
As the children ended falling asleep alongside Partner and the twin Dwarves, we conversed silently with Darfu, Emeraldine, and Lucifer about various things. The hours passed rather quickly, until we were able to finally see the mountains we had been chasing for so long growing closer and closer…
"We are here, my home, the Ash Gray Mountains." Lucifer said, his voice seemed filled with nostalgia.